50 S.E. 557 | N.C. | 1905
The plaintiff brought action for damages sustained by failure of the defendants to deliver certain packages of freight, delivered to the defendant, the Norfolk-Southern Railroad Company, at (69) Elizabeth City, N.C. on 22 October, 1901, to be transported for hire over the lines of the defendant, Norfolk-Southern Railroad Company, via Norfolk, Va., to Thomasville, N.C. on the Southern Railway. The defendants did not deny that certain parcels or packages of freight delivered to the Norfolk-Southern had not been delivered to the plaintiff on demand. Both defendants admitted that under the evidence, as it stood, each of them was liable to the plaintiff for damages, but contended that the amount was only $30.
The following facts also appeared from the record: The goods were shipped on a released bill of lading, wherein they were valued at $5 per 100, with a freight rate approved by the Corporation Commission. The following were the approved rates on household goods calculated by 100 pounds to be carried 100 miles:
1. Unlimited in value and unreleased, classified as double first-class rate, 96 cents.
2. Unlimited in value, but released, first-class rate, 48 cents.
3. Limited in value to $5 per hundredweight, but unreleased, first-class rate, 48 cents.
4. Limited to $5 in value and released, fourth-class rate, 24 cents.
The goods were shipped under the last-named classification and rate. The portion of goods lost weighed 600 pounds, which, according to the valuation specified in the bill of lading, would amount to $30. The jury found that the goods lost were worth $250. The question presented to the jury on the issue agreed upon was, What was the actual value of the goods lost by the defendant? The question submitted to the court under the admitted facts of the case and the verdict was, "Shall the plaintiff recover $250, the value of the articles lost as found by the jury, or $30, the value of the articles as specified in the bill of lading?" On the verdict, judgment was rendered in favor of the (70) plaintiff for $250, and the defendant excepted and appealed. *52
After stating the facts: It is the law of this State that a common carrier may relieve itself from liability as an insurer upon a contract reasonable in its terms and founded upon a valuable consideration; but it cannot so limit its responsibility for loss or damage resulting from its negligence. In Capehart v. R. R.,
The defendant having received the goods for transportation as a common carrier and failed to deliver on demand, and also admitting both loss and responsibility, the law will presume such loss attributable to the defendant's negligence. Mitchell v. R. R.,
We have it, then, established that the defendants by their negligence as common carriers caused the loss of the plaintiff's household goods delivered to them for transportation, to the pecuniary value of $250; that by the valuation specified in the bill of lading the amount of the loss is limited to $30, and the question presented to the Court is, For which sum shall judgment be rendered? It is the law of this State, declared by repeated decisions, that common carriers are not permitted to contract against loss occasioned by their own negligence. They can contract neither for total nor for partial exemption from loss so occasioned. Capehart v. R.R., supra; Gardner v. R. R.,
In Gardner v. R. R., supra, it is said: "It is a well-settled rule of law, practically of universal acceptance, that for reasons of public policy a common carrier is not permitted even by express stipulation to exempt itself from loss occasioned by its own negligence." CitingSteam Co. v. Ins. Co.,
In Moulton v. R. R.,
In Express Co. v. Blackman,
In Hutchison on Carriers, 250, the doctrine is thus stated: "A majority of the authorities in the United States hold that it is contrary to public policy to permit the carrier to stipulate for exemption from the effects of the negligence of himself or his servants, and it is also held by a majority of the courts that a contract limiting the liability of the carrier to a certain sum in case of loss, that is, contracts designed to secure a partial exemption from liability, while valid and conclusive where the loss is occasioned by something other than the carrier's negligence, cannot be allowed where the loss was occasioned by the negligence *54 of himself or his servant, but that in such case the owner may recover the full value of the goods."
The defendants do not seriously contend that such is not the law of this State, nor do they controvert the position that they would (73) ordinarily be responsible for the amount of the loss established by the verdict of the jury. It is claimed by the defendants, how ever, that the amount of recovery against them could only be for $30, because the value to that amount was fixed under the rating established and sanctioned by the Corporation Commission. That the defendants are compelled to take the goods at that rate, and as they can only charge the rate, they should only be held to the valuation which is made the basis of the rate. This position is plausible, but not convincing.
In the first place, it is fair to conclude that the Corporation Commission intended that this regulation should be in accordance with law, and that the valuation should only obtain in case of loss not arising from negligence. But if it were otherwise, the result would be the same. The Commission is authorized to make just and reasonable rates of freight, but it has no power to change the law nor to make a rate based upon any such idea; and if this regulation has the necessary effect of enabling the common carriers of the State in shipments of this kind to evade their responsibility for negligence, the conclusion is not that the law is thereby changed, but that the regulation itself is invalid.
We are satisfied that in this instance both the Commission and the railroads were prompted by a laudable motive to afford shippers of small means a lower freight rate. But we cannot allow such consideration in a particular case to change the rule of law that we here uphold. It is one in which the entire public is interested, as well as the individual shipper, established and adhered to for grave and weighty reasons, and necessary for the protection of the great body of shippers. A principle so vital to the public interest should not be altered, or weakened, because, in a given instance, the motive is good and the particular result desirable. If this valuation entered as an essential element into the rate here contended for, and the result would enable carriers to (74) evade the law, the rate itself is invalid, and to that extent is not a binding regulation.
There is a class of cases which permits the shipper and carrier to make an agreed valuation of goods delivered for transportation, and which, under certain circumstances, in case of loss, will hold the shipper to the agreed valuation, though this be less than the actual value and though the loss be occasioned by the carrier's negligence. In some jurisdictions contracts of this kind are not sanctioned in respect to loss occasioned by negligence. In others, such agreements are upheld where, the carrier being without knowledge or notice as to the true value, the parties agree *55 upon a valuation of the particular goods shipped, approximating the average value of ordinary goods of like kind, and make such valuation the basis of a just and reasonable shipping rate. In yet others, such agreements would seem to be upheld where the agreed valuation is known to be less than the actual value, provided the same are fairly entered into and made the basis of the shipping rate.
But in none of these is the valuation relied upon in this bill of lading sanctioned or justified to the extent here claimed for it. So far as we can discover, all of them condemn an effort to limit liability for negligence by a uniform predetermined valuation arbitrarily fixed and placed in a printed bill of lading without any reference to the actual value of the property, and without any estimate made or attempted to value the property of the particular shipment, more especially where the difference between the stipulated and actual value is so pronounced that the evident purpose and necessary effect are to practically deny recovery for negligence.
The better considered authorities, as far as we recall, forbid and condemn a limitation of liability for negligence under the circumstances here described. See Moulton v. R. R., supra; R. R. v. Keener,
It is not claimed here that the carrier was misled or deceived in any way as to the kind or value of these goods. There is neither allegation nor issue addressed to any such question; and, as we understand (76) it, the defendants did not intend or desire to raise it. Some of the goods lost were perhaps not correctly classified as household goods, but the amount properly described as household goods was more than sufficient to justify the verdict. As a matter of fact, no inquiry was made about the value of the goods and no statement made concerning them one way or the other. The agent just classified them at the established rate and uniform valuation provided for by the regulation and printed in the bill of lading, and no effort was made to estimate or put any value on the goods of this particular shipment.
The defendants rest their defense, and, as we understand, desired to rest it, on the sole ground that they received the goods at a rate and on a valuation established and sanctioned by the Corporation Commission, and claim that by virtue of such regulation the recovery is limited to $5 per 100 pounds, amounting in the goods lost to $30.
We declare our opinion to be that the valuation does not restrict the liability of the carriers for losses arising from their negligence; and that the rules of the Corporation Commission could give it no such effect, even if so intended. The plaintiff is entitled to recover the full amount of his loss as declared by the verdict of the jury.
The judgment of the court below is
Affirmed.
Cited: Summers v. R. R., post, 300; Marable v. R. R.,
(77)
